Last year’s top sprinter brings a 15-race undefeated streak to Doha and to a track he knows particularly well.

“Doha is the tone-setter for the season,” said Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion who has won the 100m race the last two times it’s been contested at the Doha leg of the Diamond League. “Each season I’ve been here [it] has set the tone for the year --coming here and running fast, running competitive.”

“In 2012 I had a great race with Asafa Powell, when I edged him out a the line. I had a great race with Michael Rodgers and Nesta Carter in 2013. I want to keep having those kinds of races here.”

In 2012, Gatlin followed up his 9.87 victory with Olympic bronze over the distance three months later. The following year, his victory set the stage for a silver medal-winning dash at the world championships. This year, he’s hoping it will be the first of several successful runs before his eagerly anticipated rematch with world record holder Usain Bolt. 

But first, Gatlin said, 2015 will a continuation, if a slightly more selective one, of his 2014 campaign which saw him winning the Diamond Race in the event in the first undefeated season of his long career.

“I want to focus on different races. Last year I just wanted to go out and compete in every race and dominate as many races as possible. 

“This year I want to be able to have fewer races, but targeted races, and run fast in each of those races.”

In an era in which the world record is Bolt’s superhuman 9.58 seconds –Gatlin’s career best in 9.77—what does he consider fast?

“The bar has been set very high on the term ‘very fast’,” he said. “9.8, 9.7 and hopefully 9.6 as well will come this year. So I want to go out there and dominate on a higher level. Not just win but dominating with fast times.”

That said, he doesn’t feel that Bolt pushed the record outside the realm of possibility.

“It was exciting for me to see someone accomplish those times. Before that I couldn’t fathom it. It opened up a new thought process for me.” And the notion that he could indeed go faster.

“I don’t think the world record is out of reach. But I believe that as humans we set a wall and say that it can’t be done until someone does it. And that opens the flood gates for the next person and the next person after that.”

Given the near ideal conditions Doha has to offer, his first “fast time” could come as soon as Friday night.

“Doha has always been a special place for me,” said Gatlin, who at 33 describes himself, in jest, as a sprinter who is “the same animal, but a different beast” from the one who first stepped on the Doha track in 2004, just over three months before taking the Olympic title in Athens. 

“It has the atmosphere, or the climate for a great sprinting race. The wind is always pretty much the allowable, about a 1.7 [metres per second] or 1.6, with a nice breeze. It’s about 80 degrees (27 C.) at night. And it’s always a fast track. So hopefully we’re going to see a good time, some special times coming out of that race.”